Dreamscape of Roses
by Mrfipp
Summary: Ruby goes on the adventure of her dreams, in perhaps a more literal sense of the term.
1. Trip to the Dust Field

Fipp: I've come up with a new story, the first multi-chapter story with a coherent timeline in a few years. I hope to have this finished by the time RTX comes around, and RWBY Volume 2 premiers.

**Dreamscapes of Roses**

**Chapter I: Trip to the Dust Field**

_Grimm are creatures without souls, monsters born of the darkness, at the dawn of man, for the purpose of dragging them back into said darkness. They lack things like mercy, compassion, and even a heart or soul; they are mankind's greatest threat. The purpose of Huntsmen and Huntresses is to protect man from the Creatures of Grimm. Uniquely forged weapons, and refined Dust are our tools to defend ourselves, and fight them off._

_Throughout the world there have been over two-hundred recorded species of Grimm, many of which are common, found in most places. They are harmless by themselves when dealt with by a competent Hunter. Beowolves, Ursa, Boarbatusk, Equine, and Longhorns are a few of these of creatures._

_Another subgroup, which stand above previous ones, are much larger, solitary creatures pose greater threats. While a skilled Hunter can deal with these Grimm, some make require a team to execute. Such examples include the King Taikitu, Deathstalkers, Nevermores, Abaias, and Wyverns._

_There is however another subgroup beyond these monsters, and they are referred to as End Beasts. End Beasts, though much smaller than the average Grimm, often no larger than a man, they are perhaps most of the most dangerous creatures to exist in our world. However, they are extremely rare, so rare that most people will likely go their entire lives without even seeing them. Due to the rarity of these creatures, there is some debate is sightings of particular specie may even be one of a single individual instead of different Grimm. There is even some debate that they are more intelligent than the average Grimm, possibly even capable of thought and reason_

_Several of these creatures are Gilgamesh, who is known to steal the weapons fallen Hunters, Aerico, who cares toxins of many incurable incurable diseases in its fangs, and Baku, who feasts on the dreams of their victims until their very life force is drained away._

_This chapter, we will be explaining in detail the End Beasts. We will start with-_

"Ruby! Go to bed!"

"Huh!?" Ruby's head shot up, almost with enough force to knock her out of bed. Thankfully, it didn't. She'd already had that happen once too often thank you very much. Setting the book to the side, Ruby peered over the edge of her bunk, and peered down at the ground below. "You say something Weiss?"

Weiss shook her head. "As much as I love that you're taking the extra time to study, we really need to get to bed. We have to wake up early for the trip, and I don't want to be late."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I got it." She then rolled back onto her bed, and happily giggled. "I can't wait! I've never been to a natural Dust field! I wonder what it'll be like?"

Below her, Weiss also rolled her eyes. "Don't get too excited. They're not too interesting. It's just large unharvested Dust crystal sticking out of the ground. There's honestly nothing too special about it."

"Are you really _that_ much a killjoy?" From the bunk on the opposite side of the room, Yang poked her head over her bunk. "How can you honestly not think there's anything too exciting about GIANT MULIT-COLORED CRYSTALS!"

Turning around, Weiss glared at Yang. "I don't mean to sound rude Yang, but have you forgotten who you're talking too? For as long as I can remember, I've been lectured repeatedly on everything there is to know about Dust. It's early history, how to mine it, proper and effective refinement techniques, and applications that range from flashlight batteries to jet fuel." She frowned, and turned back to her bed. "So excuse me if I don't find it to interesting. At this point, it's just a matter of fact than anything else."

"You're being cynical again." On the bottom of Yang's bunk, Blake had her blankets drawn to her chest, and had just set aside her novel on the nightstand. "I've been to Dust field before, lots of time actually, and I've never found them anything less than beautiful."

"What were you doing in Dust fields?" Weiss asked, slipping beneath her covers.

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

For a moment, the agitation that marked Weiss' face flickered, and was replaced with a look of uncertainty. It was brief however, and Weiss gave short grunt before rolling over onto her side, her back facing Blake.

"You think they'll let us take any home? You know, as a souvenir?" Yang's bunk shifted and creaked as she adjusted herself into bed. Despite trying to get into a comfortable position, she doubted she would actually be getting too much sleep, she was rather looking forward to this field trip, and was much too excited. Oh well, if she overslept Weiss would just wake her up. "Weiss is just a big alarm clock if you think about it."

"How am I an alarm clock?"

"I was thinking the same thing!" Ruby said, sitting up with a grin, looking back at her sister.

"Really?" Yang also sat up and happily looked back at her sister. "I just really love it when our brains think up the same stuff."

"Quick! Think of something!"

"Banana-rama sundae!"

Ruby blew a disappointed raspberry, and flopped back down onto her pillow. "I was thinking about rubber ducks."

"You two are idiots," Weiss said, pulling at her sheets and pulling them over her head.

"Goodnight you three." Reaching out, Blake pushed the button on the lamp that lit up the room, and flooded the it with darkness. Normally when she did this, it was a means to silence her teammates, so that she could read in peace in the dark. However, this time she had to agree with Weiss, it was time to go to bed.

On her bunk, Ruby pulled her blankets over her, wrapping them around her shoulders. Rolling over, she found her face hitting something hard. Blindly reaching out, she felt the cool hardcover of her Grimm bestiary textbook. She was a little upset that she wasn't able to get more studying in before bed, Grimm study was one of her favorite classes, learning about all the different kinds of monsters was something that interested he. It always made her think of stories she'd read as a child, about heroes slaying monsters, and she'd always imagined her being the one to put the monsters down, saving the people and being the hero of whatever story was going through her head.

She threw the text book to the foot of her bed, a soft _thud _confirming that her had not missed, and accidentally thrown it to the floor. Stifling a soft yawn, Ruby hugged her blankets and corgi pillow to her body and buried her face into her pillow. Soon, she was dreaming sweet dreams about being a hero who defeated the fierce monsters that wanted to eat the innocent.

It was her favorite kind of dream.

000

The room was large and spacious. Around the walls were columns, and pictures, and signs. Holographic displays were also present, the screens flickering to something new every few minutes, a soft female voice accompanying the images. There were a number of people already here, admiring the exhibits and enjoying the varying tidbits of knowledge that they were learning.

It was then a group of people walked through the open doors. The group consisted of teenagers, mostly seventeen-year olds, and the odd fifteen-year old one, all being led by a blonde woman with an overly professorial demeanor to her.

"Dust, as many of you know, is one of the primary tools against Grimm," explained Glynda Goodwitch, hands folded neatly behind her back, as she walked into the room, leading the students. "However in the years since its discovery, it has gained many more contemporary means, such as power sources, and because of that Dust mines have become a industry in themselves. There are of course who see naturally spawning crystals as something a of a natural beauty and do not wish to see that beauty destroyed, so natural preserves have been set up to insure that they are not tarnished." She then sharply turned on her heel and faced the large group of students that trailed behind her. "Does everyone understand that?"

There were varying nods and groans of clarification came from the students.

Glynda sighed, and slightly shook her head. "Today you are going to learn about Dust from first hand experiences. The nature preserve is ten square miles with plenty of natural forming Dust shards around. To start things off you will be allowed a two hour free period to explore the grounds as you see fit. After that, we will all meet back here in the main building, where we will meet for lunch, and the scheduled tour. If any of your have any questions, please come to either me, or the reservation employees.

"I should also note to please be careful, large dust fields such as these have been known to attract Grimm, so best be on your guard."

When there was no more to be said, Glynda dismissed the students, who then wandered off the varying exhibits inside and outside the room. Out of all the student, a small group in particular walked off to the side and ended up next to a column that held a collection of small blue crystals that gave off a chilly air.

"Well, two hours is a lot of time," Ruby asked, turning to the person next to her. "What could we do in two hours before he have to make it back?"

"We could look around, I guess," Jaune said, a bit unsure. "I've never been here, so I'm not too sure what else we could do. I'm open to suggestions."

Ruby nodded in agreement. Being the first friend she had made when she had come to Beacon, she liked to spend time with Jaune when she was not able to with her own team, and Jaune felt likewise. The friendship they had was enough for Team RWBY and Team JNPR to often be seen around with each-other, and both leaders had hoped that it would spark similar relationships between the two. Though nothing to that extent had formed, they were rather friendly towards one another, and for the moment, that was fine enough.

Both leaders turned around and saw the remaining members of their two teams before them; Weiss, Blake, Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren.

"So, does anyone else have any suggestions?" Ruby asked, taking a step to the group. "If not, I think looking around might be fun."

"Oh! Oh!"

"Yeah, Nora?" Jaune said, looking to Nora, who was rapidly waving her hand madly.

"How 'bout the giftshop?" she asked, jumping forward so that she was inside the group. "Those are always just so much fun! Last time I went to one I got this giant rubber snake!"

"She hid it in my pillow as a joke," Ren said, rather nonchalant. "But yeah, a gift shop sound interesting."

"I was thinking we learn more about the exhibits here." Pyrhha gestured to the varying collections around them. "Dust is a very interesting subject, so there's no harm with looking at what is here."

"I still want to see some of these giant crystals." At this point, Yang was already heading towards the door that lead to the preserved lands.

"Do you even know where you'd be going?" Blake asked, a hand at her hip.

Yang stopped in her tracks. "...No. I don't think I do." She then shrugged casually. "But how hard can they be to find?"

"You have no idea how natural Dust is formed, do you?" asked a rather annoyed Weiss. "Dust just doesn't pop out of the ground in fully formed crystals. It's often found deep below the ground in thin veins."

Yang turned back to Weiss, and folded her arms over her chest. "Then what's so special about this place?"

"This place has unusually large deposits of Dust, as well as oddly-sized naturally forming crystals," Weiss explained. "Because of these formations, the potential mining of this land could could be potentially worth tens of millions."

"What?" Ruby gasped out a chocked response.

"If it's worth that much, how come no one has been allowed to mine here?" Pyrrha asked.

Weiss opened her mouth, as if to answer, but Blake spoke first.

"It's because this land was the sight of several of the early battles after Dust's discovery, and many of those battles were what let mankind take its place in the world. It's considered a historical landmark, so no one is allowed to touch it, not even the Schnee Dust Company." Blake seemed rather proud of this fact, while Weiss seemed a bit annoyed. "They've certainly tried."

"Don't have to tell me that," Weiss replied, a bit of a growl at her throat. "Last time I was here, my father spent hours trying to negotiate with the land owners, but nothing he offered was good enough, and they turned down everything."

"So, you've been here before?" Jaune asked.

Weiss nodded. "Yes. I was thirteen at the time, so I was never actually able to sit in on the negotiations. I did spend some time wandering the grounds though."

"And you know your way around here?" Ruby asked, stepping up to her.

"You could say that."

Yang stepped between Ruby and Weiss, and gave the heiress almost no personal space. "Know anything about giant crystals then?"

"Just take the directory. They're marked there."

"Yeah! But those will just be covered in people!" Yang spread her arms and gestured to the groups of students and tourist around them. "I'd never get to see anything good! I mean, unless you know of some quiet place with giant crystals."

"..."

"You do, don't you?"

Weiss averted her eyes slightly. "I might. Last time I was here, I found a grouping of crystals with no one around them, It was rather out of the way, off the beaten path as you might say, so there's no real reason for people to be there. Even I have to admit it looked impressive."

"Then let's go!" Yang cheered. "If little Miss Jaded Pants found it cool, it's got to cool!" She turned to Ruby and Jaune. "What do you say, Team Leaders, want to check it out?"

"But Weiss doesn't wear pants..." Ruby said simply, minding the annoyed Weiss in the corner of her eye. She then looked to Jaune, who shrugged. Ruby, in response, shrugged back. "Yeah, sure, it sounds like it could be fun."

000

After leaving the main building, Ruby was able to get a better look at the landscape of the preserve. It was mostly gray rock on a dusty plaine, with a few clumps of small forests spread throughout the small hills, as well as a few rivers.

What caught her eye the most however were the small crystal sticking out of the ground. Many of them were large, thought not as large as Yang made them out to be, mostly they were the size of large rocks, maybe a bit bigger than a cat. They were shiny though, coming in various colors, if a bit rough-looking. They stuck out of varying places, out of the ground, between tree roots, beneath water, and out of cliff wall. They were very pretty.

Being the only one who knew where the spot was, Weiss was the one to lead them. She took them down the designated trail first, before eventually leading them into a small forest, and even though she complained about mud getting onto her boots, they still persisted on. Eventually, the forest led them to a small ravine, where they passed a babbling brook, until eventually they made it to a small opening in a stone wall. They entered the opening, and Ruby was presented with some of the most beautiful thing she had even seen.

The cave was large, with smoothed stone walls, cool, and glistening with condensation. However, what really caught their attention were the large veins of glowing crystal which stuck out of the wall, as well as the sharp crystals that jutted out of the ground, some taller than even Jaune.

"Wow." Ruby awed at the sights, as well did the others. She walked up to one of the large crystals and carefully put a hand on the rough surface, and she could feel a soft energy pulsating from within.

"Now this, this is pretty cool," Yang said, walking into the center of the cavern. She spun around on her heel in order properly survey the room.

"It's beautiful!" Pyrrha knelt down to a vein in the floor, tracing a hand around the edged where the crystal met dirt and rock. "I've read about mines like this, but I've never had an actual chance to see them."

Nora laughed excitedly as she bounced between the crystals, Ren following close behind her. "Careful Nora, you don't know what kind of power those things have."

She stopped in mid-skip, and on one foot spun around to meet him. "Are they dangerous?"

"Of course they can be dangerous," Weiss chastised. "Dust isn't like coal, iron or even diamond, you can't just hack away at it with a pickaxe."

"She's right," Blake continued for her. "Large crystals can have some power to them, and if treated in an incorrect manner, it can fire potentially harmful discharges."

"Really?" Jaune asked nervously, stopping her hand before tapping the crystal. Cautiously, he began to slowly walk backwards, and away from the crystals, and ended up walking right into Ruby. With a high-pitched yelp, Ruby tumbled down, landing right into a wet patch of dirt. "Sorry!"

Ruby groaned as she pushed herself up to her feet, wiping the dirt off her hands.

"Watch where you're going!" Weiss walked up to Jaune and thrust her finger at his chest, pushing him back a step, almost causing him to fall backwards.

"Weiss, don't, it's okay," Ruby said, wiping more dirt off her corset and skirt. Looking over her shoulder she saw more on her cape. "Well that sucks. I like this cape."

Jaune apologetically looked down at the ground, and scratched his neck. "Really sorry Ruby."

Ruby's response was to shake her head. "No problem, Jaune. It's just some mud, it won't take too long to get off." She then looked up, and right towards the cave exit. "Wasn't there a river or something not too far from here?"

"Yeah, about fifteen minutes away," Blake said, looking between the cave opening and Ruby. "It'll be about a half-hour round-trip, just to get out some mud?"

The small girl gave a little smirk as she walked towards the exit. "I'll be back in five minutes, ten if I decide to look around first."

Weiss tried to say something, but before she could get anything out, Ruby was gone, a trail of rose petal floating in her wake.

"That dolt," she said, looking at the spot where she had been. With her gone, Weiss turned around to look around at the crystals in the game, but her attention was caught by a strange crunching sound. Turning around she saw a small section of the stone and dirt floor shift and collapse slightly into the ground. To her confusion, a small dark shape emerged.

Then there was darkness.

000

It was not long after when Ruby found herself walking back down the rough path, wringing the remaining water out of her cape. She had managed to find the river rather easily, and soon the mud was washed out of her cape, though it was heavy and damp with cold water, though with the sun shining bright, she didn't have to worry about that for long as it began to dry. Grabbing along the edges of her cloak, she began to wave her arms back and forth, flapping the fabric in the air in an attempt to dry it further before she reached the cave where she had left her friends.

Dirt and gravel crunching under her boots, the cave came into her view. For a moment, she considered just speeding in, just to see if she could scare anyone, but decided against it. The bright light outside, combined with the darkness inside made it difficult to see the interior of the cave, and she might run into someone by accident, and she didn't want to end up hurting someone.

Then again, it was always fun scaring Weiss and Jaune...

Crouching down slow to the ground, she aimed directly for the cave. Her muscled tensed in her body, the legs in particular, as she began to increase the flow of her aura, and she suddenly burst forward. The scenery became a blur as she post past everything, Soon, she had flown right into the cave, and she ceased her aura, and her stuck her feet out and allowed herself to stop.

"BAM!" she cried out, after she and slid to a stop, arms in the air and cape waving behind her.

No on screamed in shock, no one fell back, no one angrily called her name, and no one laughed at the joke. Just silence.

Instead, what she saw only confused her.

Her seven friends were all on the floor, none of them moving. Ruby had began to intimidatingly worry, seeing them like this, and she began to think the worst. The worry then turned back to confusion when she saw that there was something else in the cavern.

Sitting between them, in the center of the room, was a Grimm. Or, at least something that could have been a Grimm, Ruby didn't know because she had never seen anything like it before.

It was small, maybe no larger than a medium-sized dog, a thick body standing on four legs, dark black fur that faded into a purple near the bottom. The head was large, with large floppy ears atop, a bone-white mask with red markings covering its face, and glowing yellow eyes, like all Grimm, with a long trunk peeking out from the under it, and two large tusks sticking upwards from the bottom jaw.

She stared at it for a moment, simply trying to figure out what she was seeing, when suddenly it opened its mouth, and let out a long, wheezing groan.

Instinct taking over, Ruby reached behind her back and grabbed Crescent Rose. In the brief moment from her back to being pulled to her side, it had shifted from the compact rifle form, to the large and threatening scythe it was. She pointed it directly at the Grimm, and put her finger on the trigger, ready to fire, when her hands lost all feeling to them.

Her vision became blurry, and her eyelids became difficult to keep open. Her body started to feel like rubber, and it felt like too much effort to simply hold them up. With a head that felt as though it was no longer attached to her neck, Ruby fell over, her weapon coming down with her, and landing between her arms.

Ruby was not certain how long she was on the ground, be it either only a second or an hour, but she was certain that she could see the creature creeping towards her, its truck extending to her face.

She wanted to do something, to fight, to scream, anything, but she couldn't. All she could do was sleep.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	2. Eater of Dreams

Fipp: I honestly spent more time working on the current chapter I'm working on today than I did all week.

**Dreamscape of Roses**

**Chapter II: Eater of Dreams**

Screams of the innocent pierced their air as buildings collapsed, homes being destroyed, and no one was able to do anything to stop it, to save anyone.

The dragon roared, the terrible noise being heard throughout the kingdom, and thrashed its tail into another home, sweeping out the foundation, insuring maximum destruction. Fire poured from its jaws and engulfed the remains, setting a brilliant blaze that would never go out. From the corner of its eye, it spotted an easy meal, a civilian who had become trapped under the rubble. A tongue running across its sharp teeth, it approached the down man, who could only scream and cry in fear and panic, praying that someone would come and help him.

The beast raised its head high, high enough to see for miles, and looked down at the man, mouth open, ready to feast.

A loud bang sounded off, and the dragon's head recoiled to the side. With an angry snarl, it whipped its head around and looked across the city where the shot came from, and spotted a single figure standing on a rooftop.

The Huntress stood, tall and beautiful, dark-red hair flowing in the wind, a heavy red cape accompanying it. In her hand she held a large weapon, which she pointed at the monster with a single hand, and pulled a trigger, sending off another blast into the dragon's face, causing it to scream.

Smoke billowing from its snout, the colossal beast charged the Huntress, who spun her weapon around and stuck the top of the shaft into the ground. She pulled the trigger again, just as the dragon struck, and with another blast, launched herself into the air as the dragon crashed its head into the building. Sailing straight up into the air, she flipped her weapon around so that it was pointing straight up and pulled the trigger once more, sending herself back down, weapon spinning like a top, and slicing the top of the dragon's skull, leaving deep scar, spilling hot dark blood out, before she vanished a flurry of rose petals, and appeared across the street.

Another roar filled the air, a roar filled with hatred and anger, that it would bring any other person to their knees. But the Huntress was no one normal, she had battled creatures like this many times, so much that it had become something routine, and rather boring. A dragon of this size? Nothing but a game for her.

The battle continued, it was long, lasting for hours, with the dragon taking massive damage, but not hurting the Huntress in the slightest. At this point, she was just getting bored.

At some point, she managed to wedge her weapon right in between its jaws. It swung its head wildly, trying to dislodge the Huntress, but unable to succeed in the slightest. With another blast, this one right into the upper jaw, the Huntress flew backwards through the air, and landed in the street.

The monster stared her down with hate-filled eyes glared down at her, and it charged, wings spread open, mouth wide and flame billowing.

The Huntress raised her weapon, and prepared.

Ruby Rose realized something was off.

"Wait, what?" she asked, looking around in confusion. She then took a moment to think in deeply consider what was happening. "This is a dream, isn't it?" Looking around, she saw evidence that this was very much dream.

The houses that had been destroyed in the conflict, were all made of gingerbread. The people she was protecting were cookies, cakes, and bowls of ice cream. The giant dragon she had been fighting was actually made of brownie, and its blood thick hot fudge. Even her weapon was different; instead of her Crescent Rose, which fired high caliber bullets, she had been wielding a large candy cane which fired exploding gumdrops.

"Yeah, I'm dreaming," she said aloud, to no one around her. "Does that mean I wake up?" She looked up in the sky, as though it was going to provide her with an answer of some sort, but none were provided to her.

She then noticed that despite running at full speed, the dragon at not come any closer to her.

Scratching the top of her head with the candy cane, Ruby wondered what she could do now. She recalled someone somewhere, Blake maybe, saying that becoming aware of your dreams meant you had control of them. She'd never had any sort of lucid dream before, she hardly ever really remembered the dreams she'd had, well except for some nightmares she'd been having the last few years.

"Hey dragon!" she called out to the charging dragon that wasn't moving anywhere. "Can you do me a favor and die?"

The dragon suddenly became stiff, and then then just dropped in front of her, its massive head landing in front of her, giant chocolate tongue hanging out.

"Bleh..." it said as it died.

Ruby looked at the dragon, and around the town, and back at the dragon, and gave it a kick in the snout.

"I should get a celebration for this," she said, a small smirk growing.

And the kingdom rejoiced.

The Huntress found herself being lifted into the air by the citizens of the kingdom, who cried tears of joy and cheered Ruby's name. They carried all the way to the candy castle, and brought her to the throne of Cake King, who towered over this people, and was made of chocolate cake topped with strawberries.

"Brave Huntress Ruby!" he proclaimed and stood from his spongy cake throne. "You have saved my kingdom from that horrible dragon! As a reward, you may marry my daughter! Princess Cupcake!"

A small cupcake bounced into the room, and landed into Ruby's arms, and the kingdom rejoiced even further.

She looked down at her cupcake fiance, and laughed, before looking up to the ceiling. "To space!"

Ruby then fired off into the air, through the roof, to the sky, and into outer space, splashing through the Milky Way, which was filled with whole milk, not that 2% junk Yang liked.

The Cupcake Princess happily giggled, and Ruby began eating her frosting hair.

That was when everything went poof.

"Am I interrupting anything?"

Ruby opened her eyes, saw that her arms were cradling nothing, and sighed in disappointment. She then looked down at herself, saw that she had lost the extra seven inches in height, and groaned.

Accepting the fact that she was short and without cupcake, Ruby looked around to where she was.

The first thing she saw was a large round table, covered in a clean white table cloth, and adorned with a fancy silver tea set. The room itself was, well, not an actual room. From what she could see, she was in the center of a cobbled street, a single streetlight shining down on her. The part of a brick wall was present, taking up one side of the street, as well as a gate that had a thick chain wrapped around it.

What she found most baffling however was that the street was hovering in the void, surrounded by absolute darkness. Other than the partial brick wall and gate, there was nothing but the street. All she could see beyond the island of street was darkness.

"Are you listening, little girl?" came a voice, the one from before. Snapping out of her confusion, Ruby looked across the table, and saw that she was not alone.

It was a man, an older man, with a shimmering dark robe that faded into dark purple along the edges. His hair was long and black, a portion of his covering his face, which was long and pale, with bright yellow eyes.

"Um..."

He laughed. It was a kind laugh, something that would usually be nice a warm, but it still managed to make her uneasy.

The man took a sip of his tea, and then widely smiled."I know you have a thing for princesses, but I really think we should begin talking, you know, we've only got so much time."

Ruby looked at the man questioningly. "Um, I'm sorry, but what's going on? Who are you, and where am I?"

He gave a dramatic sigh, rolling his eyes before placing his tea back on the table. "A bit impatient already? You should know, before making demands of other people, you should always at least have the common courtesy to introduce yourself.

"Ruby Rose," she said, with some hesitance and distrust.

"Ruby Rose," the man said, a grin on his face. "That is a lovely name. Very lucky to be named that."

"What about you?"

"Me? Oh, you can call me Baku."

"Baku?" Ruby shifted her eyes slightly. "Baku? Where have I heard that name before?" she whispered to herself.

"Oh I'll get to that," Baku said, picking his tea back up. "Why not enjoy your tea? Very rarely do I get guests here, so I made it special. Even if tea is not your thing, you should find it delicious." With a pinky pointed out, he took a sip from the cup.

Looking down slightly, Ruby did indeed see a cup of tea in front of her. Reaching out, she picked it up by the handle, pinky out because that was what fancy people did, and carefully took a sip. Normally, she would enjoy things like coffee or hot chocolate, but she had to admit that the tea was rather good.

Downing the rest of his tea, Baku leaned forward, placing both elbows on the table, the cup dangling from his fingers, and look at Ruby from over his hands. "So, Ruby Rose, you can start. Ask away. Satiate your curiosity on the matters at hand."

Ruby swallowed a mouthful of tea and placed the cup back down on the table. Nervous, a bit unsure about the situation, and her eyes dashing around the area, Ruby folded her hands on the table, and stared as straight as she could. "So..." Deep breath. "Who are you?" Yeah, very good start.

"Like I said, my name is Baku." Baku waved a hand, gesturing to himself.

"No, I mean, like, _who_ are you? And where are we, and what street is this, and why is there tea, and what happened to the cupcake-"

"You ramble, don't you?"

A bit embarrassed, Ruby snapped her mouth closed.

Baku then sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "Fine, since it seems like you're not too good with questions, I'm just going to explain things to you, okay?"

Ruby nodded her head.

"First, do you remember back in the cave? The last thing you remember?"

She frowned, a bit confused, but then her memories returned. Her friends, all unconscious, and the monster!

The man chuckled to himself as she gasped. "So you do remember then, eh?"

"What happened to my friends?" she asked, more confident and determined than she had been a second ago.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, we'll get to them, I promise," Baku replied, completely nonchalant. "Do you remember the creature though?"

"The pig-thing!"

"I'm not a _pig_," Baku sneered, a look of disgust on his face.

"What?"

"Yes, that _pig_ as you so crudely put it, is me."

"But, you're not a whatever-that-was. Are you?" Narrowing her eyes, she leaned forward and closely looked at the man. "What are you?"

Baku laughed, his eyes shining, and his voice became low. "Like I said, my name is Baku. Or, at least that is the name you humans gave me. I am Grimm, one of the ancient and powerful ones. The creature you saw in the cave was merely my physical body, what you see before you is the form I take in this realm."

Ruby stared wide-eyed at the man. Was he really a Grimm? It was something she had trouble believing, but for the moment, decided to press on.

"But, where are we?" Ruby asked, looking around the street and void.

"We, dear Ruby Rose, are in the realm of dreams," Baku said, a grin on his face. He then clapped his hands, and the table, chairs and tea all vanished. Ruby, with no chair under her, found herself falling to the ground, but the sudden appearance of an arm hooking under her stopped her from hitting it. "And in this realm, I am king." Baku then pushed his arm forward, and Ruby ended up tumbling forward, but luckily she was able to gather her composure before she hit the ground. Spinning around, she stared right at Baku and pointed a finger at him.

"Now I remember!" she cried. "I read about you in a book! Baku is a really powerful Grimm that eats dreams!"

"Correct!" Baku cheered, arms spread wide. "You've won the prize!"

"What prize?" Ruby was a bit ashamed to be a little excited.

Baku's expression remained. "You get the chance to save your friends!" He clapped his hand, and seven doors appeared near the edge of the street, only a few feet from where it ended.

Ruby looked around at the seven doors that surrounded her, still unsure. "What are these."

He waved his finger at her. "Nope, let me explain first." The man then ran a hand through the sleek black hair, and stared at Ruby. "Like you know, I am Baku, a Grimm who feasts on dreams, and the more dreams I feast upon, the more powerful my physical body can become. With me so far?"

Slowly, Ruby nodded.

He clapped once. "Good." Baku continued, speaking slowly, like he was talking down to her. "Many decades ago, I became injured, just some battle with some Hunters, nothing too important now. In order to recover from my wounds, I decided to sleep them off in a Dust field, burying myself deep into the ground. Today is the say I woke up, what do I find?" He leaned forward, as though he was expecting Ruby to answer.

"My friends!" she cried out.

"Exactly! I found seven young men and women with very powerful auras on them.. How could I resist but to put them to sleep?" He then sighed, looking a bit disappointed. "However, I think I bit off more than I could chew really. After so long asleep, I underestimated my abilities. I managed to put them them all to sleep, but my hold on their dreams was weaker than it should. Normally at this point, they'd be dead."

Crescent Rose unfolded itself, and the tip of the blade embedded in the ground, and the muzzle pointed right at him.

Baku waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about them, there still alive."

"And what about me?" Ruby asked, her eyes never leaving the man before her, her finger on the trigger. 

"Like I said," Baku said, a bit more serious. "I overestimated what I could do. I was barely able to put those seven under, and you blundering in didn't exactly make things easy for me. I managed to put you to sleep, but I had no control over your dream, a repeat of last night's actual." He sighed. "A bit boring, if you ask me."

Ruby narrowed her eyes.

"That is why I decided to have a bit of fun!" he said cheerfully, approaching Ruby without a care.

She had tried to fire, but before Ruby knew it, Baku had been at her side. He reached over and put an arm around her shoulder, holding her tight in one arm, and raised her into the air effortlessly. Her kicking and struggling was futile.

"Now, we are going to play a game, so listen closely, okay?" Baku then spun around, gesturing to the seven doors. "You are going to play for their lives, got it? Each door leads to a dream each one is having, you go into the door, rescue them, and bring them back here. Save all seven, and you win, and I let you go, got it?" He then let go of Ruby, who was sent tumbling to the ground, her head still spinning around. "But be warned, just because my magic is weaker, doesn't mean they're not in danger. It's still in affect, and every second you waste, is a second closer they are to doom, despair, and death."

"Eh?" Ruby stood up, straightening her head, and began to look at the doors. Without thinking, Ruby mad a beeline straight for the door with the burning heart engraved on it

It wouldn't open though, no matter how hard she tried, the door knob wouldn't even jiggle.

"You're not going to make it into that one," Baku said, arms being folded across his chest.

"Why not?" Ruby shot back, her hand not letting go of the door.

"Two reasons. The first being is that the dream she's having at this moment is well, let's say not suitable for eyes as young as yours."

For a moment, Ruby was confused, staring oddly at Baku. Suddenly, realization came upon her.

"Ewewewgross!" She back away from the door in a panic, shaking her had, before wiping it on her skirt, trying to get it clean from perceived filth.

Baku only laughed. "Oh, now that's funny! But seriously, you can't go in there, even is she wasn't having _that_ kind of dream."

Ruby carefully eyed Baku. "What do you mean?"

The Grimm-Man leaned down until he was at Ruby's eye level. "Why did you go for your sister's door? Is it because out of everyone here, she's is the one you know best? The one you trust more than anyone else?"

She stood tall, trying the best she could to look intimidating to him."Yeah, of course she is. I've known her since I was like four. I honestly don't remember too many things from before I met her."

He only chuckled, it was a bit more sinister than usual. "That is exactly why you can't enter that door yet. Because she returns that trust, thus making it more difficult for you to be let into her mind.

"I don't understand," Ruby said with a frown, confused. "Wouldn't that make it easier for me?"

"No." Baku straightened up, towering over her. "Because of that, it actually makes it more difficult. She loves you so much, that she would never let you in, just so she could hide secrets from you.

"Yang isn't hiding anything from me. We don't keep secrets from each other." Ruby glared at Baku, and became very annoyed at how unresponsive he was.

Baku shrugged. "If that's what you think. But know this; the closer you are to someone, the more desperate they'd be to keep you out, just so they could keep hiding from you."

Turning her head slightly, Ruby looked around at the seven doors, wondering where to go next. If she couldn't get to Yang, then...

"Here's some advice," Baku said, snapping Ruby from her thoughts. "Work your way up. Start with who you are less familiar with, the people who you are not as close too, from there, you will be able to enter the minds of those you are closer too."

Ruby said nothing, simply going over the information in her head. She didn't like the implication that her friends were keeping secrets from her. But there was something else bothering her too. She just didn't trust Baku.

"Is that all?" she asked, an accusing tone to her voice. "Are you keeping anything from me?"

"Oh, Ruby Rose," she said, a smile on his face. "Of course I am."

He then vanished, leaving Ruby alone with the seven doors.

For a minute, she evaluated the friendships she had with these people, considered who was closer, and decided the order she should go.

Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the first door.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	3. Peace and Serenity

Fipp: Doesn't the new season of Red vs Blue start tonight?

Yes it does.

**Dreamscape of Roses **

**Chapter III: Peace and Serenity**

The door Ruby had chosen first was rather simple, a wooden frame with paneling, and paper windows. Engraved on the wood was of a blossom. Placing her hand on the door, she discovered that she had to slid it open instead.

She didn't get a chance to see what was inside, as a white light came from inside the door, and faded away the entire world. For one brief moment, the void and the street had evaporated, turning into whiteness. Even the door itself had vanished.

Then, as quickly as it came, things came into existence around her, though not the area she'd be in before. Instead of black and cobblestone, she was now surrounded by a healthy green garden, bushes filled with bright and colorful flowers of all types. The grass beneath her boots was neatly trimmed, and tall, perfectly sculptured hedges acted as walls, preventing her from seeing anything beyond it.

Ruby quickly looked around, scanning the area as best she could. She ran around a tree, a tree with thick low-hanging branches, but could only see more to the garden. Raising her hands, she cupped them around her mouth and shouted as loud as she could.

"REN!" She waited for a moment to see if she could hear any reply of sort, but received none. She shouted again, but gained the same result. With nothing answering her back, she ran further into the garden.

000

Ruby rather liked Ren, though she had to admit that they weren't exactly the closest of peopled. She always found herself being drawn to people who would be more than happy to talk to her, but he rarely said much when he didn't need too. Though, she supposed Nora did enough talking for the both of them. Despite that, she did appreciate that despite being so reversed, he never seemed like he wanted to be elsewhere, and that he was legitimately enjoying himself in the company of his friends.

000

As she wandered throughout the garden, which to an extent had become a sort of forest, Ruby began to wonder how long she'd been there. She heard somewhere that dreams were actually really short, that a person could have hundreds of dream in a single night, and that you only think that the dreams you are having last a long time.

The hours that had been since she started, could it have only been a few seconds in real life?

Ruby had been so distracted in her thoughts, that she did not notice a tree root sticking out of the ground.

"Ow," she groaned as she laid crumpled on the grass. She really hoped that Ren was still somewhere else, because she didn't want anyone to have seen that.

"Are you hurt?" came a soft and gentle voice. "That fall looked like it could have injured you."

Ruby wanted to bury her head into the ground. Experimentally, she flexed her joints and found only some aching, but nothing to keep her down. "I'm fine, nothing hurt. Just my pride." With a groan, Ruby stood up, brushed the grass and dirt stains off of her, and looked around for the person she had been talking too.

She first saw a large, dark green bridge that curved upwards, and spanned a pond river. The wood itself was polished, with lotus carved into the wood. The pond was deep green, covered in lily pads, and filled with large koi fish that lazily swam just beneath the surface, their fins gently rippling the water.

Then there was the woman herself, who was standing at the other end of the bridge.

She was tall, or at least taller than Ruby herself. She wore a shiny silken, green kimono, a slightly lighter shade than the bridge, it was decorated with pink and golden lotus flowers. It was also long, trailing past her feet, and the sleeves even reaching beyond her hands. Her hair, which was shiny and deep black, was neatly done into a bun, which was kept in place by decorative sticks, a comb, and a pink lotus, though, the side was left hanging off the side of her face.

"Um, hey," Ruby said, weakly waving to the woman.

"Hello," the woman said, looking at Ruby with bright pink eyes. "Do you belong here?"

"Huh?" The girl looked around, a bit nervous. This was the first person she had met since coming here, well, other than Baku that is, so she was a little unsure what she needed to do. Was this woman like him, or was she a part of this dream? Was she based off a real person? She looked a bit like Ren, so maybe his sister, or his mother, though she looked a bit young for that.

Inside her head, Ruby gasped.

_Maybe's that Girl-Ren!  
_

"Are you okay?" Maybe-Girl-Ren asked, causing Ruby to tilt her head away and blush.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" she replied, nervous. Swallowing down her anxiousness, or at least trying to, Ruby stood up straight and faced the woman. "Uh, hey, this is kinda of a nice place you got here!" She gave a painfully wide grin. Dream person or not, meeting new people was something she was never good at.

"You like this garden?" the woman asked, gesturing to the greenery and the colorful plants around them.

Ruby nodded her head. "Oh yes. It's rather beautiful. It's real peaceful here."

The woman gave a warm smile, which was enough to tell Ruby that she was nothing to do with Baku.

"Yes, it is pleasant," the woman said. "This place is meant to be one of relaxation, where one can meditate in peace, to escape from the world. It's best you don't make too much noise."

Ruby walked forward and onto the bridge. "Don't worry, I'll try to keep it down."

The woman looked at Ruby, before approaching her. She stared at Ruby for several moments, before closing her eyes, and nodding. "Good, be sure to keep it that way." The woman stepped forward, brushing past Ruby.

"Hey!" Ruby called, turning around. "What's your-"

The woman was gone, leaving Ruby alone on the bridge. She looked around to see if the woman was around anywhere, but failed to see anything. "Well, okay I guess," With no one to talk to, Ruby wandered further into the garden.

000

Other than the nameless woman, Ruby had found no one else, only the chipping of birds were there to keep her company. It was actually beginning to worry Ruby just how little noise there was here. She really began to wonder why Ren would have a dream like this, or if he was even here at all.

She had made her was eventually to a large filed, one with every square inch covered lotus flowers of varying colors, painting the area in a rainbow of variety. The pleasant aroma of the flowers hit her nose, and made everything much more peaceful and serene. This, in tandem with the warm sun, and the cool breeze, made Ruby want to fall onto her back and take a nice, long relaxing nap. For a brief moment she considered if she could sleep in a dream, or if that would send her into another dream. Could you also dream in that dream? How many dreams could you have?

Thankfully, Ruby's ideas were interrupted when she looked off into the field. There in the center was a large rock, and atop that rock, sat Ren.

"Ren?" Ruby asked aloud, squinting her eyes and tilting her head to the side, trying to see if she was right. The figure was in the distance, but she was certain it was Ren, so she called out his name.

He didn't respond, he only sat there, unmoving.

She tried calling out his name again, and yet still received no reply. Grumbling to herself in annoyance, Ruby ran forward, and into the field of flowers.

It didn't take her too long to close the gap between them, even without the use of her semblance, and soon she found herself leaping onto the rock, and landing right next to him. She called his name again, but once more it had proven futile.

"Ren?" she asked, a bit worried. Next to her, Ren sat with his legs folded, a hand on each knee, and his eyes closed. He appeared to be asleep, which briefly brought her back to her previous thoughts about dreams-inside-dreams, and then another idea arose. "Are you meditating?" she asked, though he didn't reply. Kneeling down, she poked him in the cheek with a finger. "Kind of a boring dream if you ask me."

"It is more than just a dream." Ruby stood up and turned around. Across from her, standing in the meadow, was the woman from before. "Ren is in a deep meditation."

Ruby looked back, glancing at Ren for a moment, before looking back to the woman."Yeah, I kind of figured that out. But, why would he be dreaming about being asleep?"

"That is because he is trying to acquire inner peace."

"Inner peace?" Ruby echoed back. "Um, okay. Mind explaining that one to me." She'd heard the term a few times before, but had never actually given it any thought before, she didn't even really know what it meant.

The woman nodded. "He means to create a sense of self that is free from all outside distractions. Something that allows no noise, no confusion, no cluttered thinking. He does remarkably well at this, despite the company he keeps."

"You mean Nora? She's like his best friend."

"Yes, Nora is a dear friend of his, but she is still a very loud person." The woman frowned, a slight bit of the previous calming vanished and was replaced with annoyance. "Though, she is nothing compared to you."

"Me?" Ruby pointed to herself, a bit shocked. "What did I do? I didn't say too much! Honestly!"

Any remaining calm and serenity was gone from the woman, and Ruby found herself at the receiving end of a cold hard glare. "You brought that creature with you."

"Um, what creature?"

There was suddenly a loud, deep hiss coming from behind Ruby.

Turning around, looking past Ren, Ruby saw a large black plant.

It stood large, maybe ten feet, thick dark roots embedded into the ground, with large vines coming off the stalk, each one ended in a snapping white jaw. The petals at the end were massive, bigger than herself, each one white with red markings on it. Where they met at the center, there were smaller tendrils, writhing about, as well as small, sharp and grinding teeth..

The monster let out another hiss and swung a vine out, aiming for Ren, who only sat motionless.

Without a moment to think, Ruby leaped forward, Crescent Rose coming into full form, and cutting off the vine. The monster hissed at it withdrew the severed vine, wisps of shadows coming from the joint, before swinging another one. She managed to leap out of the way of this one, but was struck by another, and sent right into the flower field.

She was down for only a moment before she managed to jump back up, and saw that the plant was going for Ren again, but the woman suddenly jumped forward and struck at its stalk, though Ruby couldn't see with what. There was then the sound of rapid gunfire, and the creature began to fall back, crashing to the ground and petals scattering to the wind.

Seeing a moment to strike, Ruby dashed forward, and shot down at the ground, sending her flying through the air, the blade of her weapon spinning wildly.

The monster managed to heave its body up, but Ruby swung down, catching right down the center of its body. She fired off several more times, and the blade sunk deeper into its body, cutting it right in half down to the roots.

The body dissolved, fading away into smokey darkness, dark thick haze that briefly chocked the air out of her lungs before fading away, the two halves then vanishing as they hit the ground.

She went through a brief coughing fit, trying to expel the foulness from her lungs, and let out a series of haggard coughs. When it was done, her eyes watering, Ruby turned back to Ren, and was not even given a moment to think about her victory when the woman backhanded Ruby, sending her flying again.

"You brought that creature here," the woman said, walking through the flowers to where Ruby landed.

"No I didn't," Ruby said defensively, pushing herself to her feet, and bringing Crescent Rose up. "I don't know who you are, lady, but I don't even know what that thing was. All I know is that I killed it!"

"I don't believe you," the woman replied. "Whatever that creature was, it was not something that belonged here, neither are you. Neither of you are dreams."

"So, wait, I don't get it," Ruby asked, questionably. "Does this mean that you know you're a dream?"

"No," the woman said, simply and sternly. "I am not a dream, I'm simply much more that that, much like you." She raised her hand and pointed it at Ruby, the sleeve falling back, and past the wrist. "However, unlike you, I belong here." There was a flash of dark green in her hand, and Ruby found herself awed.

The woman now held two dark-green SMGs with large blades descending from the muzzles.

Ruby loved weapons, some of her early reading material were weapon safety instruction booklets, and her took great pride in being able to memorize whatever weapon she cam across. Especially ones that belonged to friends.

The woman was holding StormFlower, Ren's weapons.

Before she could even open her mouth to ask anything, she heard a _click_, and immediately dodged to the right as a spray of bullets rained down at her, cutting at the flowers that were where she stood.

Collapsing her weapon into a rifle, Ruby jumped up and continued to run, firing shots at the woman, who was able to avoid the shots and sprint towards her. Seeing that none of her shots were doing anything, Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose into a scythe, carefully aimed, and pulled the trigger, sending the blade into a wide arc into the space where the woman was about to enter, but at the last moment she jumped, and clear over Ruby.

With almost no time to think, Ruby quickly adjusted her footing and pulled the trigger again, this time sending her small body flying to the side, just in time to avoid the gunfire from above.

As she went flying, Ruby swung down, digging the blade into the earth in order to stop her momentum. When she came to a stop, she saw that the woman had landed on the ground, and wasted no time in immediately charging at Ruby. The girl had barely any time to waste to pull Crescent Rose out of the ground, before raising it up to defend herself as the woman struck with StormFlower's blades.

The woman pulled one of the blades back and swung again, aiming for an opening near Ruby's head, but the girl spun the scythe, having the shaft protect her. But more hits kept coming, each one easily flowing into the next, and Ruby found herself having difficulty catching up.

She then began to realize what her disadvantage was.

Crescent Rose was a large weapon with a very sharp blade and powerful ammunition. Ruby had put so much love and work into it, so that it could be the most perfect High Caliber Sniper Scythe in the world. It was fantastic for firing powerful rounds at Grimm, and sending her flying across the battlefield. However the tradeoff, as she was now beginning to realize, that it was very lacking when it came to close quarter combat such as this. It's large size and weight, while something that she had grown accustomed to, became difficult to properly swing around when it came to defending herself from strikes that were coming in from this close.

This became very apparent when Ruby found herself being elbowed in the face, and sent sprawling to the ground.

Clutching her nose, she tried to jump back up, but stopped when she saw one of the two StormFlowers pointed right at her head.

The woman narrowed her eyes, and Ruby wondered if she could die in a dream.

Instead of pulling the trigger, she gained a surprised look on her face and looked away. Ruby, curious, look in the same direction, and saw that she was looking at Ren.

On his rock, Ruby could see Ren's eyelids began to flicker, until eventually, they began to slowly open, and he ended up staring right at them.

There was a silence between that lasted a bit longer than what Ruby was comfortable with.

"Hey, Ren," she said, a bit meekly.

"Hey, Ruby," Ren said, pushing himself up to his feet. He then shook his arms, trying to get the circulation back into them.

"Not much really," came Ruby's reply.

The woman's reply was to raise StormFlower high above her, the blade pointing right at Ruby.

There was then the sound of gunfire, and the woman leaped back. From his place at the rock, Ruby could see that Ren had both his arms straight, his own weapons in his hands.

"Am I going to get an explanation for this?" he asked rather calmly, his eyes set on the woman.

"Yeah, later," Ruby explained, getting up to her feet. "It's just really complicated."

"It usually is."

"She has to be gotten rid of," the woman said, staring right at Ruby. "Something needs to be done about her."

"No, I don't think so. She's fine enough," Ren said.

Ruby then appeared beside him, rose petals swirling in the air. "Yeah!"

"You're in danger, Ren. She's likely part of the problem."

Ren shook his head. "I'm not in any danger."

"Yes, yes you are." She then began to fire and Ruby, who quickly jumped out of the way. Ren then opened fire as well, and the woman rolled out of the way, barely managing to dodge a wide swing from Crescent Rose. Another swing came at her, but she managed to use both of her blades to halt the large one, but had to push herself back when Ren came into view, swinging at her. "It seems I have to put you back to sleep myself."

Ren jumped as the woman fired, but Ruby came at her and swung again, only to be dodged at the last second. The woman tried to fire at her again, but Ren swung down, knocking down one of her arms, and swung with his other arms, but ended up being blocked. He quickly pulled back just as she fired at him again, causing her to miss, before continuing with his own onslaught.

Off to the side, Ruby watched as Ren and the woman traded blows, firing streams of bullets and swinging their blades, but neither actually managing to hit the other. It was rather graceful, smooth quick movements, none of them seeming like they were wasted in any way. She was tempted to let the battle between the two go on, because of how impressive it was.

But she knew that she didn't have the time. Reloading, she sent herself forward, spinning in the air, and going right between them the moment the broke apart. In midair, she stabbed the end of the weapon to the ground and swung around the shaft, before landing on the ground, and using the momentum, pulled Crescent Rose out, and fired several rounds.

The woman managed to either block or dodge the attacks. She then quickly turned around and saw that Ren was standing still, a kind of stance, his body glowing a slight pink. Before she could do anything, Ruby jumped forward and swung at her again, though she managed to block the attack, and with a quick burst of strength managed to send the girl back. As quickly as she could, she rushed to the side, and quickly struck at Ren.

Everything then happened very quickly, yet somehow slowly.

Ren, who seems absolutely calm despite the battle, suddenly threw his weapons in the air and threw out his arm, catching the blades of the woman's StormFlowers on his arm. Despite the sharpness of the weapons, they did nothing to harm him, not even tear his clothes. He then pushed back, sending the woman staggering backwards, and Ren rushed towards her and struck with bare hands. The actions were quick and precise, and the woman was not allowed any time to recover. With a palm open, he drew the hand back before sending it forward, striking the woman right in the abdomen, causing her to fly back.

With a quick leap, he jumped back and reach into the air, just in time to grab the two StormFlowers and pointed at the woman, then firing.

By the time Ruby ran up to Ren, the woman had fallen to the ground, and her body vanishing in a flash of pink.

"Where did she go?" she asked, looking around the field. "Lady!" she called out, hands cupped around her mouth.

Beside her, Ren folded up StormFlower, and slipped them back into his sleeves. "So, Ruby."

Ruby turned to Ren, hands still cupped. "Yes Ren?"

"Mind telling me what's going on?"

"Oh, yeah." She lowered her hands to her side. "Well, you see-"

"Can't we just skip the exposition?" a voice echoed through the air.

"Baku!" Ruby called, spinning around, scanning the area as best she could, Crescent Rose held tightly in her hands. Ren, while not taking his weapons out, became tense, and carefully looked around.

"Time to go back to home base, Ruby Rose."

The meadow of flowers then melted away, and Ruby and Ren found themselves in a cobblestone street.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	4. A Little Interlude

Fipp: Another!

**Dreamscape of Roses **

**Chapter IV: A Little Interlude**

"Time to go back to home base, Ruby Rose."

The meadow of flowers then melted away, and Ruby and Ren found themselves in a cobblestone street.

Ren turned his head around, observing the current environment, and noticing the strangeness to it.

"Just where is this place?" he asked, looking back to Ruby.

She gave a tired breath. "It's kind of, well, I don't know. It's a bit complicated, like I said, and this is just another part of all that stuff."

He nodded. "I see. And that voice?"

"Oh, that sounded like Baku."

"Baku?"

Ruby took a deep breath and began. "Yeah, he's the monster who put us all to sleep and is trying to eat us through our dreams but I'm going into everyone's dreams and pulling them out before he can because if I don't he's going to eat us and I don't want everyone to get eaten by a really rare and powerful Grimm." She coughed a little, the long sentence finishing.

"Oh. Is that it?" he reply, rather simply.

She nodded quickly.

For a moment he thought, and Ruby was worried that she wouldn't believe him. Then again, she had a little trouble believing this herself, and she was doubting that all this wasn't a dream.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Ruby leaned in slightly. "You mean you buy all that stuff?"

Ren nodded. "I don't see any reason not too."

"Thank goodness," she said, a sigh of relief escaping her lips. "It's really good that your believe me, I was beginning to think that maybe I was crazy."

"He can believe you, but that doesn't mean you're not crazy," a voice said from the darkness.

"Baku again?" Ren asked.

"Yeah," Ruby groaned. "Where are you?"

"Over here!" Baku's voice said, a bit of a sing-song tone to it. Turning around, both Ruby and Ren saw Baku, sitting atop one of the walls, and elbow resting on his knee with his chin in the palm. "So, Ruby Rose, I see you found your first little friend." He then sat up and held a hand straight out. "Hello there, my name is Baku. Nice to meet you pretty boy."

Ren then appeared only slightly annoyed, and very cautious.

"Hey!" Ruby called out. "Don't call him "Pretty Boy"! He's name is Ren." After a moment, she began to shrink into herself. "I mean, it's not like he's not pretty, but I wouldn't say that-"

"Ruby, stop before you get too ahead of yourself," Ren said.

"R-Right. Sorry," Ruby apologized, turning her eyes to the ground.

"Right," Baku spoke up, sounding a little bored. "Now, where were we again? Ah!" He pointed a finger in the air, excitement returning to his voice. He then jumped off the wall and onto the ground, before pointing to where Ren's door had been before. "So, you've got the first of your friends back, Ruby Rose, only six more to go!" He had a wide grin as he began to approach the pair. "Tell me, what did you think about going into the dream of your friend here? I hope he didn't find it too rude, you know with you barging into hid mind like that?"

Ruby only glared at him.

Baku's smile faded, and was replaced with a small smirk. "Oh, did you meet with some trouble along the way?"

"There was a monster in there!" Ruby pointed an accusing finger at Baku. "I don't know what kind of dreams Ren has, but I don't think he dreams about giant monster flowers!"

"...There was a monster?" Ren asked.

Baku raised a brow. "Oh? Did you think it would be easy? Just walk right in and pluck your friends out?" He gave a short laugh. "Come one, you have to have some challenges, right?"

"Then what was it?"

"It was me, or rather, my influence." Baku began to approach Ruby and Ren, and folded his arms behind his back. "Whenever I capture someone, I let them dream happy dreams first, to get there guard down, but after a while, they get sour, and turn into nightmares." He stopped, only a few feet from them. "What that creature was, was only a bit of my power that I sent in, and the influence of your friends mind gave it the shape it took. Its purpose was to wear him down, to make him easier to crush, but you killed it." The dark man gave a long, exaggerated sigh. "A real shame too, it didn't even have the time to grow real powerful."

"Will there be others like it in everyone else's dreams?"

"Oh yes."

Ruby walked away, heading towards the next door. "Come on Ren, we've got to hurry."

Ren didn't follow, but only continued to glare at Baku.

The girl stopped in her tracks, and turned back to the boy. "Ren?"

"Who was the woman?" he asked, directing the question to the dark man.

"The woman?" Ruby asked aloud. "That's right! The woman!"

"Tell me," Baku said, looking to Ren. "Inside the dream, what were you dreaming about?"

Ren said nothing at first, only staring at Baku, as if considering his response. "I was meditating, everything was peaceful and quiet. And then..."

Baku leaned forward. "And then?"

"And then I heard gunfire." He looked to Ruby. "I'm guessing that was you?"

Ruby averted eye contact, a bit bashful. "Sorry, I was fighting that monster and the woman, and Crescent Rose tends to be a bit loud."

"Very loud."

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry! You save his life!" Baku cheered, his arms in the air. "You managed to pull him out of his dream by disrupting what the dream was about!"

"I don't get it."

Baku lowered his arms, and began to wave his finger at the pair. "Unlike you, Ruby Rose, your friends will be unaware that they are in a dream, and you appearing before them will be treated like anything else they would encounter in the dream. The only way to snap them out of it, is to go against the grain."

"What does wood have to do anything?" Ruby asked.

"I think he means you need to do something that goes against what the dream is about," Ren explained, turning to Ruby. "My dream was about peace and serenity, so you making all that noise was enough to get me out of it."

Ruby 'oohed' and turned back to Baku, who nodded in agreement. "Then what about the woman?"

Baku pointed to Ren. "That was him, kind of."

"Me?"

"Or, to be more exact, a bit of your subconscious, trying to protect you. A manifestation of you, coming to the aid of your mind."

"But it attack me."

"Funny, ain't it?" Baku chuckled. "The human survival instinct. A man gets pinned under a rock slide, his leg caught underneath a boulder. What does he do? Simple; he lops his leg off." he snapped his fingers, the sound resonating in the darkness, much louder than it should be. "You were trying to aid the thing it had perceived as a threat, something that had invaded your mind. It was going to save you, even if it meant hurting you."

"Will there be something like that for everyone?"

"Oh yes there will. I wonder what everyone else will have manifest?"

Ruby groaned, and headed towards another door. "Ren, we an get through this much quicker if we take separate doors. They each lead to someone's dream." She stopped, pausing for a moment, before turning back to Ren. "Actually, take the door of someone on my team. I'll explain later why. Find whoever it is, beat the baddies, and get out."

Ren nodded, and headed towards the nearest door. Walking up to it, he held out his hand, reaching for the door knob, and passed right through it.

"What?" Ruby gasped in surprise, seeing Ren walk through the door again. "What's happening? Baku!" She spun around and look at the man, who seemed to be enjoying himself far too much.

"Sorry, but that's not how this works," Baku said, a smile on his face. "This is single player game. You need to go this alone, all the while your friend stays here."

"That's not fair!"

"Don't care."

Ruby cursed under her breath, though it was not a very offensive swear to begin with, and she looked back to Ren. "What do we do now?"

Ren looked around the area, looking at every door. Turning back to Ruby, he nodded. "Don't worry, I'll be fine here." He slightly turned his head to face Baku, who was making a show a trying to look innocent. "I'll keep an eye on him. You get the others.

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked, worried.

Ren only nodded.

Frantically, Ruby looked between the door she was going to enter, Ren, and Baku. "Fine!" she growled loudly. "Just be safe!" Turning around, she made her way back to the door and grabbed the door handle, only for her to vanish.

"And there she goes, off to try and rescue another friend," Baku said, looking to where Ruby had been.

"Why are you doing this?" Ren asked aloud, causing the dark man to look back to him.

"Doing what?" Baku replied back.

"This game, what is it?"

Baku laughed, and Ren found himself very worried. "I had told her that this was because I was weakened, and you know what, that's true. I'm not as strong as I was before I went to sleep, and it shows. Before, you would already be dead, but like this, I overestimated what I could do, so the process will take much longer. However, I have a more personal reason for this."

"...And that is?" Ren asked hesitantly.

Baku leaned down, putting himself on eye-level with Ren. "It's because Ruby Rose is a sweet adorable little girl with such an idealistic view of the world. That's the kind of thing the world likes to see broken, the kind of thing I like to see broken." He gave another laugh, a dark chuckle. "I want to see her fail at saving her friends, to come so close to rescuing one, only to fail at it, and to know that everyone she didn't make it to is now dead as well. I will enjoy that so much."

Baku then vanished, leaving Ren alone.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	5. High and Rough Seas

Fipp: Here is the next one

**Dreamscape of Roses**

**Chapter V: High and Rough Seas**

Ruby wasn't too sure about leaving Ren alone for any period of time, even more so if it was with Baku around, but he had a point; they couldn't waste time, and Ruby had to hurry. So, despite her worries, Ruby ran to the next door she had chosen.

It was large, made of rough and unfinished wood, with a large iron ring hanging off of it. The shaped carved into it was a hammer with a lightning bolt on it. Grabbing the ring, Ruby swung the door open, and found the street gone, and immediately blasted with cold water.

She screamed, the water very unexpected, and the heavy taste of salt running into her mouth, so there was some coughing and spitting too. This was the second time today that she found herself soaked, and she believed it was getting a bit ridicules. Knowing that there was nothing she could do about the water for now, she pushed the wet hair that was sticking to the front of her face and looked around.

It was a boat. A very large boat, though not like a pirate ship, but rather a viking ship, with there being one large area where she many many large muscled men rowing, while in the back someone beat on a drum.

Looking out, she saw the sea, stretching out to the horizon, the choppy waves causing the boat to bob up and down with them. He could also see what looked like a cropping or rocks, which they seemed to be head too, also bobbing up and down.

Ruby felt her stomach turn in on itself, and she had to lean against the wooden side,then close her eyes tightly. She was then sprayed with more salt water.

She may, or may not, have thrown up.

She much preferred airships. They were awesome.

It was then decided best just to lay down, and try not to die.

As she fought the bubbling in her stomach and throat that threatened to unload all her meals from yesterday, Ruby wondered where Nora was.

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Nora was someone that Ruby felt she was closer to then Ren, this was mostly because of Nora's weapon, Magnhild. The large grenade-powered hammer was, in may ways, very similar to Crescent Rose, being a heavy-grade firearms which was capable of turning into a melee weapon which still replied on ammunition to power its swings. Nora herself was also very nice, and Ruby liked that it never really seemed like anything got her down.

000

Eventually, from her spot on the floor, Ruby could feel the boat come to a stop, the large men put down there oars and soon began to pour off of the vessels. After some minutes of trying to not lose the last five meals, and getting her head back onto her neck, Ruby careful gripped the side of the ship, and slowly pulled herself up. On weak legs she managed to drag herself to the gangplank, which led her to the glory of a dock, a dock which was perfectly stable. The instant her foot touched the dock, she began to feel much better, and less sick, less likely to get anything on her shoes.

She'd never been on a boat before today, and she hoped that she would never go on one again.

With solid ground in mind, she quickly began to walk forward and stepped off of the dock, and onto the dirt and grass. Looking around, she saw that they had landed in a large village, many wooden houses with thick and dried grass covering the slanted roofs. The village itself was populated with numerous vikings, each one large, wearing horned helmets and giant beards. Each one milling around a large table that had been set up in the center of the buildings. The table itself was covered from end to end in a vast array of meats, vegetables, cheeses and drink. It looked like a very hearty banquet.

Ruby didn't know much about vikings, just that they had boats and beards. Since both of those things had been covered already, she supposed she could only learn from this. Unless whatever she learned turned out to be just a fabrication of Nora's own mind that is.

Either way, could be interesting.

Walking into the village, Ruby walked around the towering men, trying to avoid not getting stepped on by any of them. She briefly considered asking one of them for help, but she also wondered if it would actually help. The last in-dream person she met was just some sort of manifestation of Ren's soul, and that had attacked her, so maybe it wasn't the best to try and be friendly with anyone she met here.

That when when she walked straight into a wall. Or rather a man that was like a wall.

"Sorry!" she quickly apologized, stepping back from the man.

"Hm?" the giant of a man turned around to face her, and Ruby found herself facing a large orange beard that reached to his chest. The man was dressed differently than the rest of the vikings, who were all dressed in rough darker leathers and fabrics, this man wore thick iron plating over his chest, over rough chain mail that covered his torso and arms. A thick leather shoulder pad covered one arm, with a strap connecting it to iron armor that covered the other arm, and on his feet her thick leather boots, and his legs were covered by some sort of heavy skirt-thing.

On his head was a large helmet with two golden wings sticking out of the sides, and below it were two bright aquamarine eyes, which sat over a large orange beard that reached down to her chest. Ruby actually had trouble seeing his mouth below the mustache.

"And who are you?" the man asked, in a rather loud voice. "Have you come to join the feast of the Great Valkyrie?"

"The Great Valkyrie?" Ruby asked, repeating the phrase back. She reminded herself that she didn't know much about vikings, but that was a word she easily recognized. Ruby shook her head. "Um, yeah! The Great Valkyrie! I am totally here to see her! Where is she?"

"You do not know?" the man asked, and gave a hearty laugh. "How could anyone not know her?" He then slapped at her upper back, almost sending her tumbling forward. "Come! We must meet her!"

Before Ruby could say anything, she found herself being pushed along by the man. She attempted to resist by digging her heels into the ground, but this accomplished nothing, the man not even noticing she was trying to put up any resistance, and proceeded to take her somewhere else.

Actually, it was the large table she was being dragged to, where all the other vikings were being coming together.

"Come little girl!" the man said. "I shall get you a seat, and we shall feast on this bountiful meal! Eat and rejoice, little girl! Eat and rejoice!"

The man then lifted Ruby up with ease, and tossed her into one of the large wooden seats, just in time as the rest of the seats were almost immediately filled up with the vikings. Soon, they were all eating and drinking, each one laughing and generally talking loudly, having a good time. She actually had trouble hearing herself talk.

"What was that?" the man said, already some sort of froth around his mouth from the large mug in his hand. "I didn't hear you, speak up little one!"

She took a deep breath. "I said: 'Where is Nora?'?"

"Who?" the man asked.

Ruby yelled back. "Nora! Your 'Great Valkyrie'? Where is she?"

The man's eyes narrowed, and for a moment, Ruby wondered if actually Nora's name was a bad idea, and that if she was wrong about the whole Valkyrie-thing.

Though, the man gave another loud, maybe a bit infectious, laugh, and she began to feel a bit better. "Worry not, she'll arrive. But first, you need to eat! You are just skin and bones! If you want to become a proper warrior, you need to have your stomach's fill."

"But I drink milk," Ruby said, though it went ignored as the man then proceeded to pile food onto her plate, a rather large helping, that was more than what she could finish on her own. Maybe if there was dour of her, maybe if there were five or eight of her, maybe, but defiantly not on her own. Though, she didn't want to seem rude, so she picked up a drumstick which was larger than her forearm, and took a small bite out of it.

It was easily one of the best pieces of meat she'd ever had. It was juicy, and tender and simply fell apart in her mouth; she didn't even have to chew it! She was more than happy to take a second bit when suddenly everyone around her stood up and began to wildly cheer and holler at the sky.

Ruby looked up, and she could see what was drawing everyone' attention.

Descending from the sky was a large white horse, galloping on the air as full speed, on its back she could see a person. The horse began to slow down to a trot, approaching a large wooden and gold throne that Ruby wasn't sure had been there a moment ago, and the person jumped off of it, landing on the seat. With a loud whinny, the horse ascended, and rode off into the sun above.

"All Hail the Great Valkyrie!" the vikings cheered, each one raising a mug or drumstick or whatever was on their forks into the air.

"I have arrived!" the Great Valkyrie cheered as well, spreading her arms widely. "I have made a long and perilous journey from the jaws of the gods of old, and my return demands a feast!" She slammed a fist onto the table, causing the whole thing to shake. "I will gladly recount me adventures and trials, but first WE EAT!"

The vikings cheered and attacked the meals in front of them with a ferocity that Ruby thought made a pack of starving lions seem civil and tidy by comparison.

That however, was no longer important to her. She looked across the table, to the Great Valkyrie, better known as Nora. Atop her head, she wore a golden helmet with two wings on it, and for some reason, a beard that perfectly matched her hair. Ruby chose to ignore that tidbit.

"Nora!" she cried out, pushing herself out of her seat and dashing to her friend, just as she was about to chug a large chalice of something that smelled strong and very awful. "Nora!"

The sudden appearance of Ruby cause Nora to choke on her drink, and she coughed some of it back up. Ruby quickly apologized. "Sorrysorrysorry!" she said quickly, her voice gaining speed. "But we really need to get going, I'll explain later, but you have to listen to me and follow me!"

Nora narrowed her eyes suspiciously, and leaned forward in her seat, to which Ruby lean back to avoid Nora's face crashing into her's.

"Who are you?" Nora asked, a bit more dramatic than necessary.

"What, I-?" Ruby tried to explain, but suddenly she felt herself being lift from the ground as something pulled at her cape.

"This, Great Valkyrie!" the large man from earlier said, holding Ruby by the scruff of her cape like it was nothing. "She is a traveler who wishes to seek your advise on manner of graveness!" He continue ed to ignore Ruby's struggles.

"You wish to gain advise from me?" Nora asked loudly, sitting back in her seat, stroking her beard. "I do not simply give anyone any advice. You must prove yourself!" She jumped up, and raised a hand towards the sky. "Feat of Strength!"

"Feat of Strength!" the army of vikings sang.

"What's a Feat of Strength?" Ruby asked, looking around. "Actually, I don't want to know, but Nora-"

"That's the Great Valkyrie to you!"

"You're not the Great Valkyrie! You are Nora, and this is a dream!"

Nora blinked in what seemed to be confusion. "A dream," she said, a bit uncertain.

Ruby nodded her head. "Yes, a dream. We need to get out, and soon."

Slowly, Nora lowered herself back into her seat, and began to stroke her beard. "Dreaming..."

"We're in trouble Nora," Ruby explained. "We're all in danger, even Ren."

"Ren..." She breathed in, her eyes moving back and forth. For a moment, Ruby thought that she was going to get through to her.

A loud roar then pierced the air, and the sounds of crashing waves could be heard. Ruby, Nora, the man, and all the vikings turned towards the docks and saw what was making those terrible noises.

A serpent rose out of the water, it's long, snake-like body suspending itself over the waves. It's body was dark black, a large head the size of a truck with six glowing yellow eyes that pierced through a white mask covered in red markings. It opened its mouth, which was filled with countless sharp teeth and let loose another threatening roar.

"What is that thing?" Nora asked, getting up from her seat.

"One of monsters of the guy who's trapped us here," Ruby answered simply.

"...Huh?"

Ruby tried to answer, but the man grabbed her by the back of her hood and heaved her into the air, again ignoring her protests and struggle.

"That, Great Valkyrie," he said loudly. "Is her Feat of Strength!"

"WHAT?!" Ruby shrieked.

"Yeah, Feat of Strength," Nora added, though his less enthusiasm then she would have before.

"THEN LET HER BEGIN!" the man roared, and pulled his arm back.

"Uh, what are you doin-"

He then threw Ruby, right at the monster.

She screamed of course, as she was sent flying through the air, and right at the monster's open mouth.

It snapped down at her, but caught its jaw on the extended blade of Crescent Rose which had been used to jam between the monster's teeth. Roaring loudly, it shook its head with a suddenly whip to the side, causing the weapon to dislodge, and Ruby with it. Both ended up crashing into the water near the dock, but with a scrambling panic, Ruby heaved herself onto the pier and spun around to face back the monster.

Growling, the large beast hovered its head over her before it shot forward towards her. Ruby quickly rolled out of the way and fired a shot at the beast, hitting it right in the face. It made a loud hissing noise and swung its head where Ruby was, but she quickly jumped into the air, and swung at the back of its neck as it passed underneath her before landing back on the dock and fired another round at it, landing the hit at the back of its neck.

It rose again, and glared angrily at her, its mouth wide open. For a moment, Ruby wondered if it was going to try and snap at her again, but instead, a bright white light came from down the dark throat, and Ruby found herself being blasted with a bolt of lightning.

Screaming, she was sent flying into the air, high up, and down below the monster stretched its neck up, its jaw open, ready to snap her up. Pulling the trigger, Ruby sent herself out of the monster's jaw, just as it slammed just on the space of air where she had been. Another pull sent her back towards the monster, or rather the top of its head, and Crescent Rose's blade embed into its mask, right between its eyes. It roared again, and shook its head, sending out more lighting from its maws, and Ruby feeling the hairs on her head stand up.

Holding tightly to her weapon, Ruby firmly planted her boots right at the base of the mask, where the head met the skull and began to push down, pulling the trigger constantly.

The sea monster hissed and roared as the recoil forced the blade deeper into its head, and shook violently, trying to remove Ruby as best it could. Ruby however, did not release her hold on her weapon, and continued to sink it further into the monster.

Suddenly, the blade broke through the roof of the monster's mouth, and the blade went all the way through. With the muzzle pointing directly at the head, Ruby fired one more blast, taking off a large portion of the creature's head.

The body swayed in the air, now dead, it began to fall, crashing into the ocean below them, waves exploding from beneath it as fell forward and towards the land. The upper body then hit the shoreline, and continued to fall in a curvy path until the remains of the head hit the earth. Ruby rolled off the body and stuck a landing just in time as the body vanished into a cloud of darkness. The resulting could blew Ruby's cape, and as far as she could tell, it was very cool and dramatic.

"I've beaten it," she called out, walking towards the table where all the vikings were. It wasn't too far from where she landed, only a short hop away. "Nora! We got to go!"

Nora stood at the front of the group, though she still looked confused. "You don't look like a viking, but you should. So..."

"There are no vikings Nora, just you and me in a dream," Ruby said calmly.

The orange-haired girl put a finger to her temple and began to scratch it. "I don't think..."

"What you doing to her?" the large man asked accusingly, stepping between the two girls.

"I'm trying to-Wait, why do you care?"

The man deeply frowned, and put one hand behind his hand. Ruby, likewise, grabbed held tightly to Crescent Rose. She knew where this was most likely going.

"I do not know what you want, but I believe you are some sort of enemy, wishing to do her harm!" The item he pulled out from behind his back and pointed forward, as Ruby thought, was Magnhild in its compact form.

He pulled the trigger and a pink grenade shout out from the large muzzle. Ruby had to quickly dodge out of the way as the grenade hit the ground, causing a large pink explosion that threw her to the side.

Ruby managed to land the jump and turned around as the man continued to fire at her. Seeing little choice, she quickly made a run for it, trying to avoid the explosions. With a quick burst of speed, she dashed forward and swung down at him, but he had switched Magnhild into its hammer shape, and countered her strike by immediately swinging the back of the weapon at her, causing her to fall backward.

Spinning her body around, she managed to dodge the downward swing of his weapon, which caused the ground it had hit to explode. She swung again, but he raised the weapon again, managing to block her strike.

He flipped on hand around near the center of the shaft and pulled the trigger with the other, causing the hammer to fire off, having it fire down in a circle held in place by the hand, and struck Ruby. Her weapon took most of the blow, but she still felt the force of the hammer hitting her.

Tumbling through the air, Ruby got up as quick as she could, but another grenade went off near her, throwing her into the air and fall back to the ground again. She pushed herself back up, but there was a loud explosion, and she saw the man flying towards her, smoking coming from his weapon, which he then shifted back to it's hammer form. Another pull, and it shot downwards, right at Ruby, but she fired off a round that sent her sideways, having the hammer hit the ground again.

They both soon stood up, weapons in melee shapes, and readied to charge.

"WAIT!" a loud cry pierced the air, and both combatants looked back towards Nora, who stood straight with both hands on her hips. "I think I get something."

"You do?" Ruby replied, hopefully, She wanted Nora to understand what was going on, she wanted to get out of here, and save everyone else.

Nora nodded. "Yes I do. This, is a dream!" She tore off the breastplate and helmet and casually tossed them aside.

"Yes!" Ruby cheered.

"Wanna known how I know that?"

Ruby smiled widely. "How?"

"I don't have a beard!" Then then tore the beard off her face and threw it to the ground. "You are LIES! Lies and deceits!" A pink and white sneaker came down on the beard, grinding it into the ground.

"Um, well..." Ruby said, looking at the hateful treatment of facial hair. "I guess that's okay."

"You've put her under a spell!" the man yelled, pointing a large finger at Ruby. "What have you done to here!"

"I didn't do anything!" Ruby rebutted.

The man ignored her and looked back to Nora. "I shall release you from the witch's spell, even if it must be by force!" He then pointed Magnhild at Nora, switching it to a grenade launcher and fired at her.

Nora's response was to quickly pull from behind her back her own Magnhild and fired a grenade as well. The two projectiles hit in midair and a large cloud of pink smoke and fire was formed.

The man didn't had been paying so much attention to Nora that he had almost forgotten about Ruby. The young girl leaped at him, swinging her weapon in a wide arc, aiming for the neck, but he was able to catch it just in time and fired a round at ground, the resulting explosion throwing both of them into the air, but away from each other.

He'd been more prepared for the explosion, and had managed to quickly recover, just as Nora ran at him, swinging her hammer at him. He blocked the first blow and retaliated with one of his own, but Nora ducked underneath his swing and fired upwards, only for him to step back before the explosive hit.

As he stepped back, Ruby suddenly appeared in front of him and swung down at him. He threw his weapon up and blocked the attack and threw her back, though only as Nora ran up to him and made for a swing.

The two traded blows, either blocking or evading the other's assaults. Each swing was accompanied with the sounds of loud explosions and the hard clangs of metal.

Both then drew their hammers back and swung hard. Both hammers crashed into each other, and a massive explosion ensured, sending both of them flying away from the pink devastation.

The man rolled on the ground as he flew back, thought he was able to get back up quickly. He tried to raise his weapon, but Ruby made another sudden appearance. She swung down, digging her weapon to the ground, wedging his Magnhild to the ground. He made an effort to try and remove it, but Crescent Rose had stuck it.

That's when he saw Nora jump over Ruby's back, Magnhild drawn back over her head.

"Boop."

With an explosion, the hammer came down right on his bed, burying it into the ground.

His body then briefly shone a bright pink light before he vanished.

With him gone, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief, meanwhile Nora happily sang.

"We've won! We've won! The bad viking guy is done! We've won! We've won! We mad sure he didn't run!"

"Nora!" Ruby yelled, breaking her out of his song.

Nora widely smiled and saluted. "Captain Rose! Private Valkyrie awaiting orders!"

"Um... Yeah." Ruby scratched her neck. "So, anyway, as I was saying before, we really need to talk about stuff."

"Okie dokie," Nora happily nodded.

Ruby repeated the action. "Good, now first we have."

The landscape then faded, the green village gone, and Ruby found herself and Nora back on the dark street.

"Hey, Nora," Ren greeted simply, raising his hand.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	6. Something in the Dark

Fipp: Anyone else see the new opening? I did. It was awesome.

Also, sorry for this one being so short. It's basically a light-filler.

**Dreamscape of Roses **

**Chapter VI: Something in the Dark**

"Hey, Nora," Ren greeted simply, raising his hand.

"REN!" Nora cried happily, running at the by and jumping into his arms. He easily caught her, not at all surprised by the stunt as he had grown use to it many years ago. "I had the coolest dream!" she said, then disengaging herself from him. "I dreamed I was a viking queen! But it wasn't like the other ones because there were no cyborg dinosaurs, and no one even had a spaghetti sword!"

"Considering that there are some very odd circumstances going on, I'm not surprised at all," Ren replied calmly. He looked over Nora's shoulder and to Ruby. "Thanks for getting her, Ruby."

"My pleasure," Ruby replied, walking to the pair. "That's two down, five to go."

"I'm confused," Nora said, tapping a finger to her chine while she looked up to the dark sky. "What happening exactly? Is this still a dream? If so, why is no one wearing a rainbow afro?"

"It's a bit complicated," Ruby tried to explain. "Well you see-"

"More of the same exposition then, eh?" Suddenly, Baku appeared in front of the three, arms folded across his chest.

Nora tugged at Ren's sleeve. "Who's that?"

Ren didn't take his eyes off Baku. "That's someone who we have to worry about."

"Is he a bad guy?"

"Yes."

"Sounds bad."

"It is."

Ruby stepped forward, placing herself between Ren and Nora, and Baku. "What do you want now?"

"Do I really need something?" Baku replied, everything about him smug. "Why can't I congratulate you? You've saved two friends so far! That's almost half, you're getting there."

"Is everyone else in trouble?" Nora asked, the usual optimistic tone to her voice gone, replaced with worry. "What about Jaune and Pyrrha?"

"That's all for Ruby Rose here to decide," Baku said, causally waving a hand in the air. "But anyway, I just came into to check on you, so until next time. I just hope you survive until then."

He then vanished, not leaving any room for rebuttals.

"Ren," Ruby spoke, not looking away from where Baku had been.

"Yes?" he answered.

She turned around to look at him. "I need you to explain everything to Nora, I'm going to the next dream."

"Right. Just be careful. I talked to him after you left, and he's hiding things."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "I kind of got that impression. There's no way he's not up to something, but I don't know what else to do. So until we have some sort of clue, we just have to play along.

Ren nodded, Ruby nodded before running to the next door, and Nora looked confused.

As soon as Ruby touched a door and vanished, Nora looked to Ren.

"I need an info dump please."

Looking to Nora, Ren was about to open his mouth when they heard something.

Both looked out to the black void, trying to see what it was, but saw nothingness and darkness.

Nonetheless, there was a distant rumbling somewhere out there.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	7. The Grand Tournament

Fipp: Today's RvB, aka Rvb The Let's Play.

**Dreamscape of Roses**

**Chapter VII: The Grand Tournament**

The door Ruby had chosen to go through was a large steel door with a handle on it. The symbol printed on the front was of a red circle with a spear in front of it. As with the previous two, grabbing the handle led her away from the street and to somewhere new.

For a moment, Ruby took a moment to wonder where she had been placed this time. As with the previous two dreams, she wasn't really sure what she would end up seeing, so she had gone ahead and tried to guess of something that she could not expect.

When she didn't land in a blueberry minefield, she was a little disappointed. When would she get to some of the more weird surreal dreams? Yes, gardens and viking villages were nice, but there were nothing compared to her candy kingdom and brownie dragon. But this place? It was rather dull.

It was a large room. Nothing too special about it really, just a large room that reminded her somewhat of the entrance to Beacon's rather expansive gym, which was an entirely separate building in its own right. It was open and clean, dark blue carpeting going from wall to wall. Several tables against walls and hallways that lead to who knows where. The far wall opposite to her was made of glass, giving her view to the parking lot outside, and all the cars that had been parked.

Then there were the people. There were lots of people. Enough milling around the room that normally she would try to find a corner to hide in until they had mostly been gone, giving her enough space to leave without the chance of bumping into people.

Normally, that was the case. But not this time, These kinds of people are the kinds she loved, the kind that made her forget any and all social anxieties she may have had.

They all had weapons.

With a sharp breath and a squeal, room excitingly looked around the room, trying to spot everything kind of weapons she could find. She saw a pair of elemental gauntlets, a puppeteer box, varying sets of pistol knives, a wind sword, a multi-cannon, a shotgun-hammer and an extendable whip-knife

And that was only what she saw at first glance!

She giggled like a loon. She wanted nothing more than to follow people and just _look_ at their weapons. Not touch. Yang had talked to her about just touching people's weapons without their permission. They even had a follow-up talk about following people and generally coming off as some sort of creepy stalker.

Ruby gave these thoughts a moment to process. "Okay, maybe I won't follow anyone," she said aloud, her eyes following someone with a bow-sword. "I don't think a little looking would hurt." She crouched slightly, and began to make her way towards the crowd, but stopped when she saw something from the corner of her eye.

Amongst the crowd, standing tall over a good number of the people in it, Ruby saw a flash of red and gold, somewhere near the back, just before in vanished behind a corner.

Without a second thought, Ruby pushed her way through the crowd, trying to get to where the person had been.

"Pyrrha!" she cried, giving chase as best she could.

000

Pyrrha, as far as Ruby was concerned, reminded her of of the heroines that she'd read about as a little girl. She was strong, fast, her weapons she one of the best designs she had ever seen. Ruby also liked it that she was kind, gentle, and very modest. From what Weiss had told her, Pyrrha had ever right to be smug and arrogant if she wanted, but she wasn't. There were many thing about Pyrrha she admired, and she hoped that she could be something her like when she became a full-fledged Huntress.

000

Trying to avoid bumping into people as best she could, though failing a number of times, Ruby made her way though the crowd, following the tall red-haired figure, calling out her name.

For a moment, she thought she lost her, but she would quickly spot her and begin the chase again.

Eventually, she was able to find herself to a set of wood double doors.

"I think I saw her go here," Ruby said aloud. With a bit of hesitance, she put her had on one of the two doors and gave it a gentle push, gaining entry to the inside of it.

It was a locker room on the inside.

Clean white tiled walls and floors, walls of lockers lining the the room and standing in the center of the area, with benches sitting in front of them. She could see a corridor on the opposite side of the room that what she guessed led to sinks, toilets and showers. The overall structure of the locker room reminded Ruby somewhat of how Beacon had set up its own locker rooms. Though, Ruby had never actually made use of the bathroom facilities that they used, often opting instead of using the bathroom provided in her team's dorm.

"I'm afraid someone will peak on me, or steal my stuff," Ruby said to no one at all, mostly just herself.

"What?"

She panicked and quickly spun around. "Nothing!" Ruby spun around, wanting to instantly try and forget that she had been talking to herself. Standing in front of her however, was Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby called out, trying to not trip herself over her own legs as she came out of her spin.

"Oh, hello Ruby," Pyrrha replied, a bit confused looking at Ruby's presence. "What are you doing here? Are you in the tournament as well?"

"The tournament?" replied Ruby, a bit unsure.

Pyrrha nodded. "Yes, it's the Minstral Regional Tournament, I thought you would have known that."

Ruby looked around the room curiously before looking back to Pyrrha."We're in Minstral?"

"Yes, we're in Minstral. And this is a tournament. It's regional as well."

"Uh huh." The younger girl scratched at her chin. "I see..."

"Hmm..." Pyrrha hummed, trying to not be awkward.

Ruby likewise, did the same thing.

Realizing that nothing as happening, she had been the first to speak up.

"Yeah, so, this is a dream."

"A dream?" Pyrrha asked skeptically.

"Yep. I'll explain later, but you've got to believe me when I say that none of this is real."

"I see..."

"So we should get going now." Ruby gestured her head towards the exit. "I mean, like now-now."

Pyrrha looked to the door, before allowing herself to go back to Ruby. To the younger girl, it looked like she was believed her, and her hopes of making through this one with relative ease were in her grasps.

"Well," Pyrrha said. "I suppose it is a dream, since most people don't make it this far into the tournament. I guess I'm just either very lucky or a hard worker." Turning around, she made her way too one of the lockers.

"Wait, no!" Ruby rushed forward and slipped between Pyrrha and the locker that was presumably hers. "I don't mean like that! I mean like a real dream! You're asleep right now!"

"Um, okay?" Pyrrha said a bit haphazardly. "So, if this is a dream, are you a part of this dream as well?"

"No, I'm real."

"And why is that?"

"Because of a monster." She shook her head. "No! We'll explain later! We just need to get out of here."

The look Pyrrha continued to give Ruby really began to waver the confidence she had in getting through this quickly. The cross between confusion of dismissal was not something Ruby felt she needed right now.

"I think I should get going," Pyrrha said, began to step away from Ruby. "I have my own matches to prepare for. I actually hope you're participating in the tournament as well Ruby, I think it might be fun if we ended up as opponents." She gave Ruby a smile, something kind and warm, and under normal circumstances she would have happily accepted, but right now, it was not something she wanted. It meant that she wasn't getting through, that she was still in danger.

Ruby groaned in exasperation. "No, we really need to get out! Haven't you won this thing like four times before? What does it matter?"

The young woman stopped, and turned on her heel to face Ruby. "It's important Ruby," Pyrrha said, her expression a bit more serious, slightly lacking the kind smile from before. "Yes, I've participated and won this tournament before, but nonetheless, it's still something that's important to me."

"Why's that?"

"Ruby, how familiar are you with the Grand Remnant Game?"

Ruby gasped to herself. "The Grand Remnant Game! I love them!" she giggled happily. "I watch them every time they come around, and I just can't wait for the next one! I heard that the next one is supposed to be held in Vacuo, which is really cool since I really don't know too much about it and-"

"Ruby," Pyrrha interrupted.

"Yes?"

"Please."

Ruby bashfully away. "Oh, right sorry" She gave herself a short second before looking back to Pyrrha. "What were you saying about the Grand Remnant Games?"

The warm smile returned to Pyrrha's face. "I plan on participating in them one day. I won't be able to make the one in Vacuo in two years, but hopefully the one after that."

This had gotten Ruby very excited. "Really?"

Pyrrha nodded. "Yes. The Games are where some of the most talented Huntsmen and Huntresses in the world gather to prove themselves, as well as to represent where the come from. It's always been a dream of mine to take part in one, and at least win one gold medal."

"You really think you can do that one day?"

"I hope so, I've honestly spent a better half of my life preparing myself for them.

"Really?" Ruby gasped. "That's like what, seven years?"

"Eight actually." Pyrrha blushed slightly, sounding a bit proud of herself, Ruby figured it wasn't often that she mentioned her achievements in anything other than a matter of fact way, or if at all.

"That sounds hard. I don't think I could keep something like that up for that long. I honestly can't do much of anything for an hour before I want to start doing something else."

"It actually has had its difficult moments, and there were honestly a few times that I wanted to give up on it all."

"But you didn't in the end, right?" Ruby sympathetically asked.

"No, I didn't." Pyrrha reached behind her back and drew out her sword, Miló, and looked down at it fondly. "My family have always been supportive of my goals." With her free arm she reached behind her again and grabbed her shield, Akoúo̱, before holding it next to the other weapon. "Whenever I felt I couldn't go on, they were there for me. These weapons are gifts from them, something to inspire me to do the best I can.

"Wow..." Ruby looked down at the weapons in awe. She admired Pyrrha's weapons before, thinking that they were mechanical miracles, but now she could see they were more than that, at least to Pyrrha. Reaching behind herself, she put a hand on the comforting form of Crescent Rose, a welcomed weight on her lower back.

Even though she had built Crescent Rose from scratch, she couldn't take all the credit for it. Uncle Qrow had helped her with the designing, which added a familiar aspect to it that Pyrrha had with her weapons.

It also reminded her a great deal of Mom.

She chose to not go further into those though. A time and place for everything, Ruby, you know that.

Beside her, Pyrrha continued talking. "As long as I do my best, I know I haven't disappointed them."

"But what if you fail?" A deep voice came from behind them, causing both of them to turn around.

Ruby instantly knew who it was. It was the same as the woman in the garden, or the large viking. They were the only people in the previous dreams who actually talked to her. The man was tall and lean, wearing gold armor on his chest, with no armor on his arms, save for a pair of golden armlets. On his legs were knee-length leather sandals, wile on his head was a golden helmet with a large red brushy red crest going from front to back, which protected a neatly trimmed red beard and sharp green eyes. He also wore a rather impressive red cape, something she had to admit that she had respect for.

In his hands however, her Miló and Akoúo̱, though Pyrhha didn't seem to notice.

She really had to come up with a name for these things if she was going to keep coming across them. Sleep Spirits? Nocturnal Apparitions? Nighty Knights?

After going through several names in her head, she decided on Dreamguard. It sounded appropriate for what was happening.

"Then I'll simply try harder next time," Pyrrha answered the man's question certainly.

"Despite your failings?"

Pyrrha stared at the man, determined. "Like I said, I'll try to compensate for where I'm not as strong."

Ruby was about to talk, to add her own thoughts when the Dreamguard looked to her.

"I believe it is time for your match, Miss Rose," he said, a deep frown etched on his face.

"What, me?" Ruby said, a bit panicked. "But I don't-!"

"Do not keep your opponent waiting." The man then placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder, and firmly began to push her towards one of the doors. He ignored her complaints, even her attempts to escape were thwarted by grabbing her hood, as opened the doors and pushed her through.

Ruby suddenly found herself stumbling forward, her legs barely able to keep up with her body, threatening to crash if she didn't keep herself up. She finally managed to get her legs back under control and came to a stop. Looking around, she suddenly found herself standing in the middle of what looked like a large school gym.

The room was mostly dark, she could barely see the seats along the walls, a number of lights shining on what looked to be a series of mats covering the floor, reminding Ruby of a sort of makeshift arena.

"Um, hello?" she called, out, spinning around to see if she could see anything, but she could barely see anything.

There was then a loud snort from outside the light. Ruby turned to where it had come from and saw two glowing yellow orbs in the darkness.

The creature stepped into the light, a large hoof crashing onto the floorboards. Coming closer, Ruby could see the towering bipedal creature with a thick torso and arms covered in black hair, and a Grimm mask covering its face, with two large horns coming from the sides of its head.

The minotaur roared and lowered its head, before charging its straight at Ruby.

She quickly rolled out of the way and pulled out Crescent Rose before firing it at the minotaur's back. It roared again before spinning around and charged once more, though this time it was much faster then before, striking her with the side of its horn and sending her across the mats, crashing at the very edge of them.

Groaning, she pushed herself up to her feet, though just in time to duck beneath the large fist of the monster as it swung at her. She swung her scythe at it, catching it on its bicep, her finger was about to fire the gun, guaranteed to slice it off, when it suddenly flexed its arm, causing the weapon jerk out her hands, though still in the monster's arms.

She suddenly chocked as it grabbed her by the hood and flung her up. The arm stopped for a moment, and Ruby knew it was going to throw her back to the ground. Without even thinking, she grabbed hold of its horns.

It threw down its arm, taking Ruby with it, however with her arms tightly wrapped around the horns, the head followed and smashed into the ground.

Hissing at the pain in her arms, Ruby pushed herself onto her feet and looked for her weapon. It didn't take long before she spotted near the minotaur, likely having been dislodged from the fall.

At this point the minotaur groaned as it made its way back to its own feet. There was now a crack in its mask, and with burning yellow eyes it searched out Ruby, and spotted her not too far away.

With another roar it charged, only to be shot in the face. It became blinded with the blast and gunpowder, but nonetheless charged anyway.

Ruby however, did not run. Instead, she only held Crescent Rose up, the blade pointing to her back and to the ground. She could feel her heart beating in her ears as she saw it was blindly charging her.

Just as it was about to crush her, she fired, sending the blade flying from under her and straight upwards into the minotaur's stomach. Spinning on her feet and kneeling down, so that the monster was to her back, she stabbed the lower end of the weapon into the ground. With and blast, the blade rocketed again, this time taking the hooked minotaur with it, and sending it flying over her head.

Just as it was about to fall out of the lit arena, Ruby quickly spun her weapon around again and fired at it several more times, each one pushing it further away into the dark. There was then a deep _thump_ as its body hit the ground.

Ruby heard no more sounds after that.

Suddenly, in the darkness, two doors opened up. From the light coming from it, she could see the dissolving remains of the minotaur's body. Seeing it as the only exit for her to take, Ruby ran forward, jumping clear over the remains, and through the black cloud that was forming over it, and right through the door.

As soon as she stepped through the door, she found herself in a large auditorium. Like the gym it was dark, with the only light being on the stage. On said stage, she could make out two figures; Pyrrha and the Dreamgaurd.

"Pyrrha!" she cried out, before rushing down the dark aisle. When the stage was just close enough, Ruby leaped forward, landing right on it, and in between the two.

"What are you doing here," the Dreamgaurd asked, arms crossed under his chest, maybe to look intimidating. Ruby chose to ignore him and looked back to Pyrrha.

She was staring at the ground, her eyes were somewhat vacant, like she was staring right through it and at nothing at all.

"Pyrrha?" Ruby asked, a bit hesitant when no response came. She tried again. "Pyrrha?"

"What if..." Pyrrha said, her voice low, head still bowed down. "What if in the end, I don't make it?"

Ruby knelt down slightly to look her in the eyes. "What?"

"I've been training over half my life for this," Pyrrha said, her voice shaking slightly. "What if, when it comes down to it, I somehow can't do it? All of that time and hard work would have been for nothing?

"Pyrrha..." Ruby placed a hand on Pyrrha's forearm, the muscles tensing up as soon as they touched.

"My parents have done so much for me, if I let them down, then..."

"Stop that, Pyrrha," Ruby said, her voice firm.

The taller girl blinked, as if in surprise, and looked back up to Ruby.

"You can't think about that," Ruby continued. "You said it yourself, you won't be able to be in the next games, so you have six years to train and get better." She smiled, trying for something bright and warm. "You're pretty good now, what do you think you'll be like then?"

Pyrrha simply stared at her, her eyebrows furrowed, looking as though she was deeply thinking about what Ruby had just told her.

"What will happen if she can't though?" the Dreamguard asks. Annoyed, Ruby looks back to him.

"Would you keep quiet!"

The man simply stared down at her, and spoke to her in a tone befitting this stance.

"Dreams can be difficult to obtain, and sometimes hard work is not enough," he continued steadily. "Sometimes, it can force people to become desperate, and sometimes they would do anything for that dream."

"What are you talking about?"

"Victory maybe be achieved, but at a great personal cost."

Ruby narrowed her eyes as she glared at the man, who then unfolded his arms to take out his weapons, Miló and Akoúo̱.

"Will you one day have to make that kind of sacrifice?" he asked. He then raised his arm, Miló shifting it its sword form, and swung down.

The blade missed Ruby as she jumped to the other side of the stage. She pulled out Crescent Rose, just as the man began to charge her and began to fire at him, but he raised his shield in front of him, moving it around to block each shot perfectly.

Shifting the sword into a spear, he planted it in the ground and used it as a pole-vault, and flew into the air. He sailed above Ruby and threw it down at her, she managed to block it, but he had landed on the ground, shifted the spear into a rifle, and fired at her.

She barely managed to dodge bullet as she rolled to the side. Changing her weapon into its melee form, she fired off a round and flew straight at him, large blade over her head, ready to swing down.

The Dreamguard simply waved his hand, and Ruby felt Crescent Rose jerk back, sending her flying backwards. It didn't help that he had thrown his shield again, hitting right in her abdomen.

Landing on the ground, she slid to a stop, clutching her stomach and began coughing. The Dreamguard walked over to where she lay, kicking Crescent Rose aside, out of her reach.

"A dream can be harsh," he said, looking down on her. "Sometimes, they cannot be achieved, no matter what."

He raised Miló above his head, the sharp spearhead pointing directly down at her. His arm came down, Ruby raised her own arm to defend herself and closed her eyes. When no blow came, she peaked out of one eye, and saw the same standing over her, hand gripped tightly on his weapon, which shook in his hand. For a moment, Ruby was confused, unsure why he hadn't hit her.

Suddenly he spun around, raising Akoúo̱ to defend himself as something hit it with a loud metallic _clank_.

Ruby kept her eyes on the object that hit the shield, seeing it bounce off of it, and curving back the way it had originally came, and right into Pyrrha's hand.

"You're right," she said, lowering her own Akoúo̱. "A dream can be hard, and sometimes we can't obtain them, or at least not on our own." She then raised her own Miló, in it sword form, in front of her, before pointing it at the Dreamguard "Sometimes, you just need a little help getting there." Pyrrha then looked past the man, to Ruby, who was still on the floor, and smiled. "I already needed to teach that to a friend of mine."

Ruby titled her head in question. Was she talking about her?

Before she could ask, Pyrrha jumped forward, as well as the Dreamguard and swung their weapons at one another, clashing the metal against each other, creating bright sparks with each hit.

The Dreamguard tried to stab forward, but Pyrrha waved an arm, throwing the blade off course. This left him wide open for Pyrrha to counter, swinging her own weapon upwards, but her shield gained a mind of its own, crashing into her arm, stopping the blade from hitting him.

They both then swung their shield at each other, hitting the curved surfaces against one another. The force of the blows was enough to sent them both skidding backwards.

He then turned around to parry Ruby as she flew in for an attack. She fired again, twice, and the man buckled in one knee, causing him to fall to the ground.

Pyrrha ran at him, firing her gun at him, but he managed to push Ruby away and roll to the side to avoid the shots. Just in time he managed to jump to the floor and raised his shield, just as she jumped into the air and slammed her shield down onto his own.

He tried to push her off, to send her flying, but he couldn't. Her shield was stuck to his shield; she has magnetized them together.

The revelation had come to slow though. In the moment it took him to realize his mistake, she lowered her sword beneath the two shields and pointed it directly at him.

With a flick of a trigger, the sword extended into as spear, and pierced his abdomen.

The man grunted in pain as the metal went through him.

For a moment, Ruby wondered if Pyrrha was going to drive in in further, but the man suddenly vanished, changing into red and gold lights.

With him gone, Pyrrha relaxed in her stance, lowering her weapons, and looking back to Ruby, who cheered. Pyrrha returned a smile.

"So, is this still part of a dream?" Pyrrha asked, looking around the stage.

"I'll let Ren and Nora explain that to you," Ruby answered, the room vanishing around them.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


	8. Not A Moment's Rest

Fipp: I really want Grif with a southern accent.

**Dreamscape of Roses**

**Chapter VIII: Not A Moment's Rest**

"I'll let Ren and Nora explain that to you," Ruby answered, the room vanishing around them.

The street came into view, and immediately Ruby could tell something was different than before.

"Pyrrha!" cheered Nora, who hugged Pyrrha tightly around the waist. "We're so glad you're alright! I've been playing eye spy with Ren and he keeps winning!" She nuzzled her head into Pyrrha's chest.

"Um, it's good to see you too, Nora." Awkwardly, Pyrrha raised a hand and slowly pat Nora on the head.

"Nora, down," came Ren's voice as he approached the three girls.

Happy to oblige, Nora disengaged herself from the taller girl and skipped over to Ren's side.

Ren continued. "And you keep saying either black, cobblestone, and streetlight."

"Well there's not else much in here!"

Pyrrha found herself laughing at the two, finding herself happy for them to be here, Wherever "here" was. However...

"Wait," she said, looking around there area. "Where's Jaune? He's not here?"

Ren solemnly shook his head. "No, here's not here. He's still dreaming, along with the rest of Ruby's team."

"What is so important about dreams?" Pyrrha asked, looking around the void. "And this place, just what is it?" She then turned around. "Ruby, can you please-Ruby are you okay?"

Ruby was bent slightly at the knee, rubbing the side of her head with an open palm. "Huh?" Her voice came out a bit thin, somewhat ragged than before. "No, I-I'm fine. Just a little..." She stood up straight and took a deep breath and arched her back backwards. Letting it go, she straightened up, and began to widely swing her arms back and forth. "It's nothing, just a little sore after all, but nothing I can't shake off." Giving her arms one last swing, Ruby spun around and placed one hand on her hip, and the other pointing to the next door. "Well, I'm off to the next one, wish me luck!" Ruby pulled a foot back and bent slightly at a knee, making it look like she was about to run.

"Ruby wait!" Pyrrha rushed over and grabbed Ruby by the shoulder just as she began to move. Her feet moved forward while her upper body was kept in place causing her to almost fall backwards. Thankfully, Pyrrha managed to catch her before she fell, placing her other hand on the shorter girl's back. "Ruby, are you certain that you are alright?" she asked softly.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Ruby replied, hurriedly. Pulling her shoulder out of Pyrrha's grasp, she reached up and straightened her cloak.

"Are you sure?" asked Ren, both him and Nora approaching the two. "You've been going nonstop since this started. You managed to save myself, Nora and Pyrrha, all without stopping."

"Don't you think you should take a rest?" Nora asked, an uncharacteristic tone of worry in her voice. "At least for a moment?"

"I can't Nora, there's not enough time." Ruby gave a huff of breath. "I still need to get the others, and we don't have the time for me to take a rest."

"But Ruby-"

"Don't worry about it!" Ruby pushed herself away from Pyrrha, taking several steps back. "I'll be fine, and when we've got everyone, we'll make Baku let us go." She then turned around and approached another door, and vanished into it.

The three were left alone, staring at the door that Ruby had just gone through, wondering what to do next.

"Wait," Pyrrha suddenly asked, turning to Ren and Nora. "Who's Baku?"

There was suddenly a thunderous roar in the darkness.

"And what was that?"

"Nora," Ren said, turning to his partner. "You want this? I already did it once."

The orange-haired girl gasped happily. "I would love to! Okay Pyrrha, here's the story of an evil pig!"

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


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